278 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



nest that we took in Lapland belonged to this 

 bird (on April 21), with three eggs, and this, I 

 think, is about the number ; for although I found 

 one nest with four eggs, and once shot an old 

 female from a nest of three, out of which I took 

 another full coloured egg just ready for laying — 

 they say here that the lafskrika begins to sit as 

 soon as the first egg is laid, and I fancy this is 

 the case with the crossbills — all the other nests 

 contained but three eggs, and these often sat on. 

 I never met with the Siberian jay out of the forests 

 save on one occasion, when we were eating our 

 dinner on a tolerably high fell, at the foot of an 

 old dead fir which had been stuck up on its 

 highest peak as a kind of landmark, when a 

 lafskrika perched on the top of it and watched us 

 at our repast, all the while uttering its long plaintive 

 mew as if begging for an invitation. In the middle 

 of June I shot strong flyers. The nest is thick and 

 large, formed outwardly of dead fir branches, and 

 thickly lined inside with feathers. The egg is a lit- 

 tle smaller than that of the jay, ground colour pale 

 bluish grey, mottled and dashed all over, especially 

 at the large end, with darker grey and light brown. 

 I shot two specimens of the starling (Sturnus 

 vulgaris, Lin. ; "starre," Sw.) close to the priest's 

 house, on April 26, before the snow had begun 

 to go, but I never saw another. 



